2. PREFERENCE FOR THE SYNOPTICS ON THE WHOLE.

When we address our question, Do the Synoptics or Jn. deserve
the preference? to those who do not care to make such a distinction between “sacred” and ordinary human history, who, though
they are quite prepared to find in the
history of Jesus and especially in his inmost character much that is unfathomable,
would like even here to see as much that is clear and humanly intelligible as it
is possible to see, we are almost inclined to conjecture that the decision has already
been made. Much as we have tried, in enumerating the distinctions between the two
stories of the life of Jesus, to make the facts alone speak, we could not help it
if these made the scale turn in favour of the Synoptics: and the review of the
attempts which have been made to reconcile the two accounts could hardly fail to
strengthen this impression.

Our task is now therefore merely to sum up the matter as briefly
as possible, and then to give a rather more detailed treatment of some further points
in which the trustworthiness of Jn. really needs to be more thoroughly investigated
or in which it is still necessary to explain how it is that Jn. has come to make
statements differing so widely from the truth. When we do this it will be time to
say plainly what we think of these statements, whereas so far we have refrained
from doing so, and have faithfully followed our purpose of giving in the first instance
only the facts (p. 4).